Choosing my life goal!!!

[dafuturesurgeon]

Hey guys! So im looking into the med field as my career. Ever since i was little, surgery has interested me. This past summer, i did A LOT of research on the schooling and requirements etc..
I understand during med school and residency i'll male my mind up for sure on which specialty, but i keep coming upon some conflicting information.

I like many others, dont want to be so deep in debt and not be able to pay it off before enjoying the great compensation and moving to my own private practice etc.

I am currently looking into three specialties: Neuro, Ortho, and Cosmetic Plastic.

Which one is the best for general life's goodies (ability to pay student loans off, enjoying the fruits of my labor, ability to create a comfortable living situation including hours and similar things) and hopefully a family??

Thanks for all the answers!


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[WedgeDawg]

Quick question, are you in high school, college, or something else?

Neurosurgery has one of the worst schedules in all of medicine.

Ortho is slightly more controllable, especially if you're working for a group, but is still going to be fairly intense.

Cosmetic plastics is going to be the most controllable, but residency will still be pretty rough.

All of them make substantially more than the median doctor income. All of them are among the most competitive specialties to match into.

 

[dafuturesurgeon]

Im entering my first year of college this fall. I got accepted to a to tier privet college with their pre med students scoring in the 95 percentile.

I know neuro is bad schedule wise, but i know the most well know neurosurgeon in the world, and he has a great life style, even when he was starting out. He stayed married and had a few kids and is quite wealthy today.


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[WedgeDawg]

Im entering my first year of college this fall. I got accepted to a to tier privet college with their pre med students scoring in the 95 percentile.

I know neuro is bad schedule wise, but i know the most well know neurosurgeon in the world, and he has a great life style, even when he was starting out. He stayed married and had a few kids and is quite wealthy today.


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I'm not sure what you mean by "scoring in the 95 percentile".

You can theoretically have an excellent lifestyle in any specialty, but if you go into neurosurgery, it is highly highly unlikely you will have a lifestyle that most consider to be good.

 

[JustintheDoctor]

I'm not sure what you mean by "scoring in the 95 percentile".

You can theoretically have an excellent lifestyle in any specialty, but if you go into neurosurgery, it is highly highly unlikely you will have a lifestyle that most consider to be good.

just let him do neruo. He will most likely end it all if you get my drift.

Also, didn't you hear?!

95th percentile is now a thing that only he knows about!

Get into med school, and during your 3rd and 4th year you'll get to experience most if not all of the specialties. Make your mind up then

 

[dafuturesurgeon]

Oh jeez i wonder what pre- meds score on??? an MCAT maybe or something? Or is it the SAT... a little logic would be nice from you


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[randomguy123456]

Hey guys! So im looking into the med field as my career. Ever since i was little, surgery has interested me. This past summer, i did A LOT of research on the schooling and requirements etc..
I understand during med school and residency i'll male my mind up for sure on which specialty, but i keep coming upon some conflicting information.

I like many others, dont want to be so deep in debt and not be able to pay it off before enjoying the great compensation and moving to my own private practice etc.

I am currently looking into three specialties: Neuro, Ortho, and Cosmetic Plastic.

Which one is the best for general life's goodies (ability to pay student loans off, enjoying the fruits of my labor, ability to create a comfortable living situation including hours and similar things) and hopefully a family??

Thanks for all the answers!


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No matter what you choose, about 98% of students change their minds about their specialty during their time in medical school. You should decide after shadowing or working with physicians in your desired fields for a couple of months and asking them questions. Cheers.

 

[Turkishking]

Focus on getting the grades first.

 

[grapp]

Focus on what's ahead of you, get good grades, that can't possibly hurt. Consult a premed adviser and academic adviser to discuss your options and I'm sure they would help!

 

[deleted407021]

Focus on what's ahead of you, get good grades, that can't possibly hurt. Consult a premed adviser and academic adviser to discuss your options and I'm sure they would help!

The advice about focusing on what one can change and prepare for now is good. However, I'd suggest that OP remain wary of premed advisors once they go to university. Quite often -- in my experience and in that of many, many others on this site -- their understanding of the med school application process is limited, outdated or both. Why would you immediately trust the advice of someone who hadn't even taken the prereq courses themselves, much less the MCAT (I had some who weren't even aware it changed in 2015)?

Carefully vet everything you hear and read and always maintain a careful skepticism.

 

[JustintheDoctor]

Oh jeez i wonder what pre- meds score on??? an MCAT maybe or something? Or is it the SAT... a little logic would be nice from you


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> when you bring logic into the equation
> when you didn't read your original post

 

[grapp]

The advice about focusing on what one can change and prepare for now is good. However, I'd suggest that OP remain wary of premed advisors once they go to university. Quite often -- in my experience and in that of many, many others on this site -- their understanding of the med school application process is limited, outdated or both. Why would you immediately trust the advice of someone who hadn't even taken the prereq courses themselves, much less the MCAT (I had some who weren't even aware it changed in 2015)?

Carefully vet everything you hear and read and always maintain a careful skepticism.

Huh... My experience with them is quite positive and they have seemed to very helpful. I suppose there are good premed advisers and bad ones.

 

[deleted407021]

Huh... My experience with them is quite positive and they have seemed to very helpful. I suppose there are good premed advisers and bad ones.

You're in high school, yes?

 

[grapp]

You're in high school, yes?

Yes and I've met with several premed advisers and academic advisers. I'm also a part-time student at a local college. Yes, a senior.

 

[dafuturesurgeon]

My experiences with pre-med advisors have been good so far. One even suggested a Bio-Research major because it could give me an upper hand on the research aspect of applications?

Another thing is has anyone applied/been accepted to a program similar to Flexmed or Georgetown University's early decision program?


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[meditative_premed]

However, I'd suggest that OP remain wary of premed advisors once they go to university. Quite often -- in my experience and in that of many, many others on this site -- their understanding of the med school application process is limited, outdated or both.

100% agree. The premed advisors at my undergrad university were super unhelpful about anything related to the actual application, glared at anyone with less than a 3.8 GPA and 32 MCAT, and told them to change career paths. The first reliable advisor I found was from my master's program at another university, and she was so wonderful only because she had worked on that school's admissions committee and had real experience in the process.

 

[Mad Jack]

My experiences with pre-med advisors have been good so far. One even suggested a Bio-Research major because it could give me an upper hand on the research aspect of applications?

Another thing is has anyone applied/been accepted to a program similar to Flexmed or Georgetown University's early decision program?


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Georgetown, not even once.

Don't commit to a school this early on, those programs generally aren't the best road to go down. Also, neurosurgery will generally give you the worst lifestyle in all of medicine. There is basically no job where you aren't taking call (spine you'll have to deal with spinal injuries, general neuro you're dealing with cranis and other cranial trauma management, etc), and no group is going to bring you on and not give you at least as much (if not more) call than all of the partners. You could specialize in spinal correction for scoliosis and other such procedures, but that's still not going to be a full-time gig immediately, particularly if you've got no reputation. Just... Do a rotation in neurosurgery and you'll very quickly learn why we're all finding your preconceived notions of NS to be laughable. You're like a kid that wants to work the ED but never work nights or weekends. Actually knew a guy like that, my roommate actually. He was visiting me in the ER after some bad **** went down and I told him, "hey, you should ask the attending whether you can do EM without working nights and weekends." She laughed ecstatically when he asked, and was like "no, just no. I've been doing this 20 years and it just isn't happening, I'm still doing nights and weekends." You'll get a similar response from >99% of neurosurgeons, trust me.

 

[grapp]

My experiences with pre-med advisors have been good so far. One even suggested a Bio-Research major because it could give me an upper hand on the research aspect of applications?

Another thing is has anyone applied/been accepted to a program similar to Flexmed or Georgetown University's early decision program?


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See? Some of them are helpful, other people haven't shared the same experience I have had with premed advisers. Just be wary from the information you receive and don't hesitate to check with other people who know lots of the forum. GL.

 

[meditative_premed]

See? Some of them are helpful, other people haven't shared the same experience I have had with premed advisers. Just be wary from the information you receive and don't hesitate to check with other people who know lots of the forum. GL.

Absolutely, not all premed advisors are bad, not all are good. The best thing to do is talk to a wide range of people, from advisors to current premeds to current med students to physicians (new physicians might be more helpful since older docs are SUPER far removed from how med school applications work now compared to 30 years ago when they applied). We were just trying to say that you shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket with one advisor's opinion

 

[eteshoe]

If you're dead set on some surgical specialty, some things that you (may) need (or at least help):
UG: 3.9+ GPA (major doesn't matter), 90th+ percentile MCAT, hospital volunteering, community service, shadowing, research, etc.
Med School: strong pre-clinical performance, 260+ step scores, strong clinical performance, AOA, research, LORs, etc.
Residency: match into a strong general surgery program
Fellowship: sub-specialize in whatever surgery tickles you pink.

Life: Work like a dog, but be well compensated.

See - a pretty straight forward obstacle course. No point in getting bogged down in the minutiae (enjoy college and work hard), but that is the basic gist of the pathway.

 

[dafuturesurgeon]

Absolutely, not all premed advisors are bad, not all are good. The best thing to do is talk to a wide range of people, from advisors to current premeds to current med students to physicians (new physicians might be more helpful since older docs are SUPER far removed from how med school applications work now compared to 30 years ago when they applied). We were just trying to say that you shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket with one advisor's opinion

Is there an easy way to get into contact with new MDs? Im not sure if i could find them on here or maybe some other forum? I found this forum by accident and its been very helpful.

BTW thanks to all the replies! I've learned a lot.


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[meditative_premed]

Is there an easy way to get into contact with new MDs? Im not sure if i could find them on here or maybe some other forum? I found this forum by accident and its been very helpful.

Go on google and search for physicians at hospitals/clinics in your area, look up what year they finished residency; if they finished in the past 5-10 years they probably have a good amount of knowledge about how the application process works now. Email them about shadowing, shadow them once a week or so for a few months or even longer if you really enjoy learning from them. I think its good to shadow both newer and more established physicians - you can learn so much from a physican who has been practicing for decades, but you can get a different perspective from a new doc with a fresh set of eyes.

 

[dafuturesurgeon]

Go on google and search for physicians at hospitals/clinics in your area, look up what year they finished residency; if they finished in the past 5-10 years they probably have a good amount of knowledge about how the application process works now. Email them about shadowing, shadow them once a week or so for a few months or even longer if you really enjoy learning from them. I think its good to shadow both newer and more established physicians - you can learn so much from a physican who has been practicing for decades, but you can get a different perspective from a new doc with a fresh set of eyes.

Awesome thanks!


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